Theatre Director
Kelly is an award-winning theatre director, educator, and trained actor based in New York City. She’s passionate about women’s stories, re-imagined classics, mischievous satires, bilingual theatre, intergenerational theatre, and stories that examine the nuances of gender dynamics and class struggles. As a director she combines rigorous text analysis, tightly-crafted devised movement, and a true ensemble-based rehearsal process to create a highly theatrical experience on stage. As a leader she is nimble, actively committed to collaboration, and very cool under pressure. A co-founder of the critically acclaimed and nationally recognized Flux Theatre Ensemble, she has directed throughout the downtown New York City theatre scene as well as regionally. She has assisted Tina Landau, Anne Bogart, and John Rando. She received her MFA in Directing from Columbia University.
Kelly was raised by her mother, a choreographer; her father, a painter; and her stepfather, a public school teacher. When Kelly is not directing, she enjoys bicycle touring, hiking, gardening, learning Spanish, and traveling this incredible planet. She lives in Astoria, Queens with her partner, illustrator and professor Kristy Caldwell.
Current:
Upcoming: Directing at 29-hour reading with NYC’s Working Theatre in October.
Developing It Came from the Cloud by Jeremy Kareken (The Lifespan of a Fact).
Developing The Elephant Play with Flux Theatre Ensemble, a movement theatre piece about a family of elephants coping with grief and loss of land.
Recent:
Directed Wolf Play by Hansol Jung at Portland Theatre Festival in Portland, Maine. It ran August 22 to September 8.
Directed a 29-hour reading of the currently-titled It Came From the Cloud by Jeremy Kareken (The Lifespan of a Fact) featuring actors Bart Shatto (Les Miserables), Geneva Carr (Bull, Hand to God), Ann Harada (Avenue Q, Seussical, Into the Woods) and Lev Steinberg. General Managed by Jessica Jenen.
Directed Ms. Holmes and Ms. Watson - Apt. 2B at Playhouse on Park in West Hartford. Running Jan 24 to Feb 18, 2024.
Read my interview with Christopher Arnott of the Hartford Courant about Ms. Holmes and Ms. Watson - Apt 2B.
Directed for the Shakespeare & Company Fall Festival of Shakespeare at Monument Mountain High School in The Berkshires
Flux Theatre Ensemble Annual Retreat. I was thrilled to return to Flux’s annual retreat at Little Pond Arts Retreat in Pennsylvania where I developed and devised The Elephant Play, a movement theatre piece about a family of elephants coping with grief and loss of land.
Indecent by Paula Vogel at Playhouse on Park in West Hartford, CT. Read the reviews! Update: INDECENT won three CT Critics Circle Awards for Best Ensemble, Best Lighting Design, and Best Director!
Shakespeare Outreach Tour with Stages on the Sound. Toured to elementary and high schools in Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan.
Teaching:
Taught workshop on “Composition in Live Theatre” to design and illustration students at Queens College
Introduction to Directing at Institute for Health Professions at Cambria Heights High School
After-School theatre with 6, 7th and 8th graders at Our Lady Lourdes School in Hamilton Heights, Harlem.
Our Lady of Mercy in Forest Hills, Queens where we collaboratively devised a 30-minute reality-TV Hamlet with the 8th grade and a modern day adaptation of A Christmas Carol with the 6th grade.